Category: Watch

Watched A Husband for Christmas (2016) from Hallmark Movies
Directed by David DeCoteau. With Vivica A. Fox, Ricco Ross, Eric Roberts, Dominique Swain. Two co-workers agree to a loveless marriage of convenience, but as they become acquainted, an unrealized chemistry grows between them.

Rating: ★★★
 
This redeems some of my faith in Hallmark holiday movies…
I’m not sure the macguffin for this plot works as well in a post-me too world where the lead character would be suing the company for sexual harassments of the worst kind. 
 
I didn’t even recognize Dominique Swain in this at all.
Watched A Royal Christmas Ball (2017) from Hallmark Movies
Directed by David DeCoteau. With Tara Reid, Ingo Rademacher, Mira Furlan, Haley Pullos. Dateless for the Christmas ball, 39-year-old bachelor, King Charles of Baltania, tracks down his American college sweetheart, only to discover Allison has never been married, yet raised a 17-year-old daughter, Lily, who mathematically might be Charles’ biological princess.

Rating: ½ 

 I didn’t think there could be a worse Hallmark Christmas movie than the one saw yesterday. This was an order of magnitude worse.

It did have an interesting Christmas tradition of creating a custom ornament each year to commemorate the year much like the Lakota winter counts. I’ve seen references to these types of decorations before, but it’s rare to see them represented as a recurring thing.

Baltania, what a great name for a generic non-existent European country.  

The animated gilded book page turning and sparkles with voice overs were appallingly bad. I think that almost every bit of footage they shot for the film got used twice. The production value was atrocious. The casting was painfully drunk. The green screen work was pure misery and I’m fairly certain a 9 year old could do a better job using Zoom right now.

Watched "Succession" Dundee from HBO Max
Directed by Kevin Bray. With Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin. The entire Roy clan travels to Logan's hometown of Dundee, Scotland, for a celebration of Logan's 50 years in the business; Kendall becomes enamored with Jennifer, an actress in Willa's play; a former employee proves difficult to silence.
I can’t help but think about The Dundee awards on The Office…
Watched A Prince for Christmas (TV Movie 2015) from Hallmark Movies
Directed by Fred Olen Ray. With Viva Bianca, Kirk Barker, Aaron O'Connell, Brittany Beery. Wanting to escape an arranged marriage, a European prince flees to the United States. There, he meets a struggling young waitress who may just be his one true love.

Rating: ½ star

Just not good. No chemistry between the leads at all.

Watched The Queen (2006) from Netflix
Directed by Stephen Frears. With Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Alex Jennings. After the death of Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II struggles with her reaction to a sequence of events nobody could have predicted.

Rating ★★★½

I’ve seen this in the theater and at least one other time on video. Interesting to revisit after watching a few seasons of The Crown on Netflix though.

Watched The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) from Netflix
Directed by Aaron Sorkin. With Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong. The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Rating: ★★★★★  

Just awesome. 

Almost hard to believe Sorkin’s involvement as there wasn’t as much walking and talking as I might have expected. A bit of a throwback to his A Few Good Men days in terms of style. Great writing, plotting, and acting here.